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BLODGET'S PLAN 



OF THE 



BATTLE ON THE SHORES OF LAKE GEORGE, 

8 September, 1755. 
REMARKS 

MADE BEFORE 

THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
March 13, 1890. 



BY 



SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 






W 



BLODGET'S PLAN 



BATTLE ON THE SHORES OF LAKE GEORGE, 

8 September, 1755. 
REMARKS 

MADE BEFORE 

THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
March 13, 1890. 



BY 



SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D. 



ORitlj a Jac--simtk of % $lan. 



CAMBRIDGE: 

JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

2Sntbersttg $Jr««. 

1890. 






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BLODGETS PLAN 



BATTLE ON THE SHORES OF LAKE GEOBGE. 



At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, on Thursday, March 13, 1890, Dr. Samuel 
A. Green called attention to an early engraving, of 
which a fac-simile of the exact size is herewith given, 
and said : — 



During the summer of 1883 a bound volume of " The 
Boston Gazette, or Country Journal," running from April 14, 
1755, to December 29 of the same year, came into the posses- 
sion of the Historical Society. The file had once belonged to 
the Rev. Dr. Abiel Holmes, for many years the Corresponding- 
Secretary of the Society, and bears some of his handwriting ; 
and it was given to the library by his son John Holmes, Esq. 
In the copy of the newspaper for September 15, there is a 
reference to the battle between the French and the English 
on the shores of Lake George, where General Johnson de- 
feated and captured Baron Dieskau. Attached by wafers to 
this particular number was a rare engraving of the battle, 
showing the engagement of the troops on each side, and giv- 
ing a plan of the English encampment, with the position of 



the various regiments. The original drawing was made by 
Samuel Blodget, — present at the time as a sutler, — which 
was without doubt fairly accurate. It was engraved on cop- 
per by Thomas Johnston, a native of Boston, and at that period 
an artist of some local repute. Subjected to the tests of a 
modern standard, the work would be harshly criticised, but, 
making due allowance for the improved methods in the art of 
engraving during the last century and a half, it is on the whole 
creditable. An advertisement in the Gazette, December 22, 
in this file, gives the date of the publication, and other inter- 
esting facts connected with the Plan, as follows : — 

THIS DAY PUBLISH'D, 

And Sold by Samuel Blodget, at the South End of Boston, near 
the Sign of the Lamb, and opposite to Capt. Smith's. A prospective 
PLAN of 2 of the Engagements the English had with the French at 
Lake- George, on the 8th of September 1755 ; exhibiting to the Eye a 
very lively as well as just Representation of them ; together with Part 
of the Lake, the Camp, the Situation of each Regiment, with the Disad- 
vantages attending them : The Appearance of the Canadians, Indians 
and Regulars, as they made their Approach to the Brest-work ; the 
Form of the Land and the Enemy ; together with the Advantage they 
had in their Ambuscade against Col. Williams. As also a Plan of 
Hudson's- River from New- York to Albany ; with such Marks as will 
be of great Service to Navigation : Likewise the River and Waggon 
Road from Albany to Lake- George ; together with a Plan and Situation 
of each of the Forts that have been lately built. All which is carefully 
and neatly struck off from a large Copper Plate. 

N B. There will be Sold with each Plan a printed Pamphlet with 
Explanatory Notes, containing a full, tho' short History of that impor- 
tant Affair from the Beginning to the End of it. 

ijg^ The above Map, together with the Pamphlets, may be had of 
the Printers hereof. 

According to this advertisement the Plan or Map was pub- 
lished in connection with a pamphlet, of which, fortunately, 



there is a copy in the Historical Library, though lacking the 
Map. A comparison between these two publications shows 
beyond all doubt that they belong together and explain each 
other, as figures in the one refer to corresponding numbers 
in the other. The Map, probably, was folded and fastened 
between the first and second leaves, as there are marks of 
stitches at this place in the copy. The pamphlet is bound 
up with others, once owned by the Rev. Dr. Jeremy Bel- 
knap and given to the Society by his daughter, on March 11, 
1858. It is a quarto in form, containing five pages of de- 
scriptive matter, besides a page of " Advertisement," and 
is entitled : " A Prospective-Plan of the Battle near Lake 
Greorge, on the Eighth Day of September, 1755. With an 
Explanation thereof ; Containing a full, tho' short, History of 
that important Affair. By Samuel Blodget, Occasionally at the 
Camp, when the Battle was fought. Boston ; New-England. 
Printed by Richard Draper, for the Author. MDCCLV." 

Samuel Blodget, the author of the Plan, was a trader in 
Boston. He has an advertisement in the Gazette, Dec. 10, 
1759, by which it appears that he kept a shop in Marl- 
borough Street, where he sold English goods, sugars, hats, 
etc. He gives notice that " Officers and Soldiers who have 
lately been discharged, may be supplied at the lowest Price, 
till their Muster-Rolls are made up," showing that he still 
had certain relations with the army. A sketch of Mr. 
Blodget is given in Potter's " History of Manchester, N. H." 
(pages 525-537), from which it appears that he was born 
at Woburn, on April 1, 1721, and died at Derryfield, now 
Manchester, on Sept. 1, 1806. At one time he was a Jus- 
tice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County 
of Hillsborough, and at a later period the projector of Blod- 
get's canal around the Amoskeag Falls. See also Chase's 
" History of Haverhill" (pages 621, 622) for another account 
of Mr. Blodget. 



u 

Thomas Johnston, the engraver of the Plan, died in Boston, 
on May 8, 1767. He was an artist of respectability, and had 
practised as an heraldic painter. "The Boston Evening- 
Post," May 11, 1767, has the following notice of his death : — 

Last Friday Morning died here Mr. Thomas Johnston, Japanner, 
Painter and Engraver, after a short illness, having heen seized with an 
Apoplectic Fit a few Days before. 

In the list of ante-Revolntionary publications given in 
the second volume of Thomas's " Histoiy of Printing " (second 
edition), it is said, on page 523, that Blodget's " Plan is rarely 
met with." According to Sabin's " Dictionary of Books re- 
lating to America" (vol. ii. pp. 231, 232), an edition of the 
pamphlet was brought out in London, during the year 1756, 
by T. Jefferys. 




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